Da Costa keeps BMW on top on second Formula E test day

Antonio Felix da Costa kept BMW i Andretti at the top of the timesheets on the second day of Formula E pre-season testing in Valencia.

Da Costa was the first driver to go below the 1:17 mark, setting a fastest lap of 1:16.977 in the morning session. His closest rival was reigning champion DS Techeetah’s Jean-Eric Vergne, 0.4 seconds off.

Mahindra’s Jerome d’Ambrosio, Techeetah’s Andre Lotterer and Nissan e.dams’ Sebastien Buemi were split by less than 0.1 seconds in third through to fifth, with Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler’s Lucas di Grassi just a further 0.06 seconds adrift.

Edoardo Mortara lost the opening two hours of the session due to a driveshaft issue. He ended the session ninth fastest ahead of Pascal Wehrlein’s Mahindra.

Part of the afternoon session was used to simulate the use of the new Attack Mode race format, with an activation zone at Turn 5 being used to give drivers access to a higher power mode. The ‘race’ was ‘won’ by di Grassi.

A lengthy red flag period, the only stoppage of the day, was brought out after one lap’s running of the simulation as Daniel Abt crashed his Audi at the makeshift chicane, while Stoffel Vandoorne’s HWA ground to a halt.

Vandoorne, having completed only a handful of laps on Tuesday due to a suspected battery issue, was unable to run for the remainder of the day. He will hand over to Daniel Juncadella for Friday as he heads to Austin for the US Grand Prix, meaning he has only had half a day’s running in addition to his two days of private testing ahead of his FE debut in Riyadh.

After being side-lined by a terminal gearbox issue on Tuesday, Formula 2 racers Max Gunther and Antonio Fuoco shared the second Dragon car. Fuoco was 20th after his time in the morning, while Gunther only set 10 laps after the Attack Mode simulation and was slowest.

After almost setting a century of laps on day one of testing, Nelson Piquet once again set the most laps of anybody on Wednesday for Jaguar, setting 69 laps throughout the day.

Chris is a member of the Autosport Academy and has been writing about motorsport professionally since 2015. He has been one of the top Formula E journalists since he went to Donington Park for pre-season testing a week after picking up his A-Level results.

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